More flu shots for state, but crunch remains
The state announced yesterday that it will receive another shipment of flu vaccine this week, bringing the total number of shots available in Massachusetts to 1.2 million, about as many as the state estimates were given out last year.
But state public health officials said at a press conference in Boston yesterday that the supply is still expected to fall short of what is needed to vaccinate all residents considered at high risk of suffering life-threatening complications from the flu, about 2 million people.
Demand for the vaccine has increased this year because a near-panic ensued after the British government shut down a factory that was expected to produce nearly half the US flu shots for this season. Senior citizens have stood in line for hours at vaccination clinics.
The state Department of Public Health said it will receive an additional 262,630 flu shots from Aventis Pasteur, the lone remaining maker of vaccine for the US market. That brings the state agency's total to 660,000, and roughly 600,000 flu shots have been shipped directly to doctors' offices and hospitals by Aventis. The new doses will be sent to local boards of health, doctors' offices, and hospitals.
In response to the shortage, the state restricted vaccines last month to groups considered at highest risk of death from the flu, including people 75 or older, nursing home residents, children ages 6 months to 23 months old, and people with chronic health conditions that require regular medical care. An estimated 1 million Massachusetts residents are in those categories. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had adopted looser guidelines, recommending, for example, that anybody 65 or older or with mild chronic conditions be eligible.
But state public health authorities have for now decided not to relax the restrictions because of uncertainty about how many people in the highest risk groups will want shots and because many hospitals and medical offices have received only a fraction of the vaccine they ordered.
Local boards of health will get all the vaccine they ordered, but they placed their orders based on last year's turnout, which is estimated at less than half of those who were at high risk, health authorities said.
"We're trying to meet a heightened demand, because a lot of people weren't coming forward" in previous years, Public Health Commissioner Christine C. Ferguson said.
In addition, many hospitals and medical offices that ordered the vaccine from
The state said the new shots being sent to medical offices and hospitals should meet up to half their anticipated need.
"We ordered between [60,000] and 65,000 doses, and to date we have 12,000 doses," said Dr. Brit Nicholson, chief medical officer at Massachusetts General Hospital. "If we were to get the full 50 percent, we would still be short."
Massachusetts' 262,630 new flu shots are among 3 million that are being distributed nationally to state health agencies by Aventis and the CDC. Massachusetts is receiving a large portion of the shipment because it has an aggressive vaccination program; it ordered as many flu shots this year as the Department of Health Services in California, a state with more than five times as many people.
Another 8 million doses remain to be distributed to hospitals and doctors' offices, and Ferguson said that an announcement about distribution was expected later this week and could affect whether vaccine requirements are loosened in Massachusetts.
Local boards of health have been turning to appointment-based flu clinics and are using lotteries and requiring doctors' notes and proof of age, in order to deal with the influx of patients. They plan to continue with their current setup until they receive new doses of vaccine.
"I'll continue with my lottery, and hopefully call those who are on the list and don't get the vaccine" once the extra doses announced today are distributed, said Patricia Parent, town nurse in Upton.
Ricki Lacy, director of public health nursing services at the Cambridge Health Department, said that extra staff members are working the phones and that they have been busy booking appointments for four flu clinics this month. When the extra vaccine arrives, they will either hold more clinics or distribute vaccine to private medical offices and hospitals.
The flu season is just beginning, with 46 states reporting no cases or only sporadic activity. So far, one case of the flu has been reported in Massachusetts, in Greater Boston, but the flu season usually does not peak until January and February. Ferguson said there was no reason to expect that this year would be worse than usual. In a typical year, about 36,000 Americans die of the flu; no reliable estimates are available for this year.
Ferguson urged people to be patient and to periodically check the state's toll-free flu information line, at 866-627-7968.
Carolyn Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com
